Power cuts: UNP leader draws govt.’s attention to plight of A/L candidates

By Saman Indrajith

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday called on the government to heed the impact of ongoing power cuts on children sitting the GCE A/L examination.

Making a special statement in Parliament, the UNP leader said that the ongoing power cuts might have serious negative repercussions on the future of children facing the advanced level examination which was considered to be a major turning point of their lives.

Wickremesinghe said that the power cuts had a serious impact on students and it would reflect on their Z-scores on which their university entrance was determined. There was a possibility that some affected parties would petition the Supreme Court since their fundamental rights were violated. “These students have been inconvenienced due to power cuts and it is not fair for them. They can even file Fundamental Rights petitions. Therefore, it would be better if the power cuts could be prevented until the examination is concluded in March,” Wickremesinghe said.

Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena said his ministry was conducting discussions with the Commissioner General of Examinations, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) and the Ceylon Electricity Board to prevent power cuts until the Advanced Level Examination was concluded. A discussion regarding the matter was held on Tuesday (22) night.

Minister Gunawardena thanked Wickeremsinghe for raising the matter in the House.

“The Education Ministry has commenced discussions with the Commissioner General of Examinations, the PUCSL and the CEB regarding this. One such discussion was held on Tuesday (22) night. We hope to find a favourable solution to this,” he said.

Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said allocating funds to purchase fuel had become a problem to the country at the moment.

He said that the Government had invited foreign ambassadors in Colombo representing countries that produce fuel for a meeting to be held on March 15 to discuss the possibility of purchasing fuel on long-term credit.

Minister Gammanpila said that during an emergency Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday (22) evening, it was thoroughly discussed on increasing the fuel prices and decided not to increase the prices right now. He said that there were no shortages of fuel, medicine and other necessities in the country, but a shortage of US dollars.

“However, the Cabinet decided to release funds to obtain fuel shipments. Following that, payments have been made to three shipments that were berthed at the Colombo Port and fuel stocks from two petrol and diesel shipments are being carried to the land since Monday (21). There is another shipment berthed and we hope the Treasury will release the funds as soon as possible, as agreed at the emergency Cabinet meeting,” he said.

Gammanpila accepted that there was a diesel shortage in the country at the moment. “That is because we had to limit diesel stocks released to the filling stations until finding funds to release the said diesel shipment”, he said.

The Minister pointed out that some filling stations hid petrol and diesel following the statements made by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Chairman that fuel prices would have to be increased by a large margin and price increase of Lanka IOC.

“Sri Lanka has the lowest fuel prices in South Asia. We are ranked 22nd among the countries that supply fuel for lower prices. The other 21 countries produce fuel by themselves on a large-scale.”

Owing to the Russia – Ukraine tensions, fuel prices are expected to increase in the global market in coming days. When we increased fuel price last time on 22 December 2021, a crude oil barrel was priced at USD 72. But now, it has increased to USD 99. It is expected that a crude oil barrel will be priced at USD 115 by March. Therefore, we have invited Ambassadors of the countries that produce fuel for discussions on 15 March, to determine whether it is possible to obtain fuel from their countries on long-term credit, the minister elaborated.